More than 300 students from Allegan and Barry counties attended the second annual Allegan Barry Youth Summit Friday, April 24, at Gun Lake Community Church.

The Allegan County Pro Youth Team is a youth board made up of delegates from schools in Allegan County. Schools  represented are Allegan, Fennville, Martin, Otsego, Plainwell, Saugatuck and Wayland High Schools.

This year the students had the opportunity to partner with schools from Barry County Youth Leadership Summit to plan the event.  The theme this year was “Empower,” during the summit where students attended breakout sessions and heard a keynote speaker; students were energized with empowering messages reinforcing the belief that they can make a positive impact by being their best self.

The Pro Youth Team strives to enhance the voice of youth who don’t use alcohol or other drugs, and encourage peers to be confident in that choice.  While there are only a few members of each school that can be delegates, at Wayland the PYT students bring back their information to the Wahoos (making a larger Pro Youth Team at the school, just with a fun name).

The Wayland Wahoos are student leaders who are interested in changing the negatives into positives in the school through purposeful actions creating positive reactions. Their focus is not solely on being above the influence, they see that as one element of being an effective leader in school.

Anyone can join the Wahoos at any time during the school year- meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month at 7 a. in teacher Andrea Brown’s room.